The Ten Commandments are not primarily a set of universal rules, a binding list of dos and don'ts for all people at all times and all places. They don't seek to summarize all the world's wisdom on two stone tablets. Instead, the Ten Commandments are integral to the identity of a particular people at a particular place. The Ten Commandments were first spoken to a people who had been delivered from enslavement, who had been provided sustenance in the wilderness, a people who had been both faithful and feckless.